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PM: ‘I am ready to listen to all suggestions’

Stefan Löfven gave an olive branch to leaders of the opposition in a heated parliament debate on Wednesday which focused mainly on the escalating refugee crisis.

Published: 14 October 2015 12:02 CEST
PM: 'I am ready to listen to all suggestions'
Stefan Löfven and Anna Kinberg Batra in Wednesday's debate. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT

The Prime Minister, who heads the ruling centre-left Social Democrats-Green coalition, said his government would be meeting with opposition leaders to discuss the crisis, which has seen more than 86,000 people seek asylum in Sweden in 2015.

“I am ready to listen to all suggestions,” he said and added that any “party prestige” should not stand in the way of co-operation across the political blocs.

“Sweden faces enormous challenges and we should then also show the strength of a united Sweden.”

The debate comes just days after fresh figures by the country's Migration Agency revealed that more refugees have sought asylum in Sweden so far in 2015 than in any other year in the Nordic nation's history.

86,223 people have launched cases in 2015, surpassing a previous record set in 1992 when 84,016 people sought asylum in the Scandinavian country following fighting in the Balkans.

But the leader of the Moderates in the centre-right Alliance, Anna Kinberg Batra, launched a scathing attack on Löfven's government in Wednesday's debate, calling for tightened border controls and temporary residence permits.

“It is obvious that the situtation is not sustainable and that the government can't control it,” she said.

READ ALSO: Tents to provide shelter for refugees in Sweden

The heated debate also saw nationalist Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson put forward a vote of no confidence in Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson for failing to plan for the refugee crisis, but this was immediately rubbished by leaders from both political blocs.

“You are about to turn this parliament into something far below its dignity,” said Löfven.

Åkesson announced the Sweden Democrats would put their support behind the Moderates' alternative budget proposal in a coming vote, Kinberg Batra replied her party would not support a vote of no confidence and ruled out seeking the nationalist's party backing.

“I am not prepared to rule with support by the Sweden Democrats,” she said.

Despite the controversy, Löfven's budget proposal is likely to pass in a vote later in October. The Alliance quartet indicated on Wednesday that plans to put forward four separate proposals –  none of which would enjoy enough support on their own to overrule Löfven's bid – remained intact.

Concerns had previously been raised that the government's budget would fall after the Christian Democrat party pulled out of a cross-party deal to let it through parliament in a shock announcement on Friday.

But while party leader Ebba Busch Thor on Wednesday hinted that the four Alliance parties could put forward a common budget proposal as early as this spring, Kinberg Batra was quick to underline that no decision had yet been made.

The December Agreement was struck in late 2014 after Prime Minister Stefan Löfven's Social Democrat-Green coalition called a re-election because his budget fell in parliament. This happened because the nationalist Sweden Democrats backed the centre-right opposition's budget instead of abstaining from the vote as had been expected.

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INSIDE SWEDEN

Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won’t spark a government crisis

The Local's editor Emma Löfgren rounds up the biggest stories of the week in our Inside Sweden newsletter.

Published: 18 May 2024 09:22 CEST
Inside Sweden: Why troll factory won't spark a government crisis

Hej,

News that the Sweden Democrats are operating a far-right troll factory – which among other things the party uses to smear political opponents as well as its supposed allies – has caused probably the biggest rift yet between them and the three other parties that make up Sweden’s ruling coalition.

The leaders of the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals all strongly criticised the Sweden Democrats’ blatant violation of the so-called “respect clause” in their Tidö collaboration agreement – the clause that states that the four parties should speak respectfully of each other in the media.

But after crisis talks held on Thursday, the conflict appears to be dying down.

The Sweden Democrats hit out strongly at the TV4 Kalla Fakta documentary where the troll factory was revealed, calling it a smear campaign and disinformation, but simultaneously went as far as to confirm that they do run anonymous social media accounts for which they refused to apologise.

They did say sorry to the Tidö parties for including them in the smear campaigns, and promised to remove some of the posts that had offended the other three parties, plus reassign a couple of members of staff to other duties until they’ve been given training on the Tidö “respect clause”.

But that doesn’t remove the fact that they vowed to continue the anonymous social media accounts whose existence they had prior to the documentary consistently denied, or the fact that some of the social media posts shared not only vague anti-immigration content, but white power propaganda.

The Liberals took the row the furthest, with Liberal leader Johan Pehrson describing people in his party as skitförbannade – pissed off as hell. He said ahead of the crisis meeting that they would demand that the Sweden Democrats cease all anonymous posting, which the latter rejected.

The party had two choices: walk out of the government collaboration and possibly spark a snap election, or walk back its strong words ahead of the meeting and wait for it to blow over.

They chose a kind of middle way, and called for an inquiry to be launched into banning political parties from operating anonymous social media accounts. The Social Democrats immediately accused the Liberals of trying to “bury the issue in an inquiry” – a classic Swedish political method of indecisive conflict avoidance which the Social Democrats themselves are well familiar with.

The Christian Democrats and Moderates both said that the Sweden Democrats had accepted their criticism and welcomed the party’s reshuffling of staff within its communications department, adding that it still had to prove its commitment to the Tidö agreement going forward.

So why isn’t this causing a bigger government crisis?

We asked Evelyn Jones, a politics reporter for the Dagens Nyheter daily, to come on the Sweden in Focus podcast to explain it to us:

“The Sweden Democrats are the biggest party in this coalition, even though they’re not part of the government. So the government really needs them. It’s hard for them to just stop cooperating with the Sweden Democrats,” she said.

“The cooperation between the government parties and the Sweden Democrats has been going pretty smoothly since the last election – more smoothly than a lot of people thought. This is probably the biggest crisis so far, but how big it is, is hard to say.”

You can listen to the full interview with her and the rest of the Sweden in Focus podcast here. 

In other news

If you are a descendant of a Sweden-born person and would like to find out more about them, there are ways to do that. I wrote this week about how to research your Swedish ancestry.

That guide was prompted by my interview with the chair of a community history group in a small parish in north-central Sweden, which has tried to get to the bottom of rumours that US mega star Taylor Swift’s ancestors hail from their village. I had so much fun writing this article.

The EU elections will be held on June 9th, but advance voting begins next week in Sweden. And poll cards are already being sent out, so if you’re eligible to vote you should receive yours soon.

Sweden’s consumer price index fell to 3.9 percent in April, below 4.0 percent for the first time in two years, reinforcing predictions that the central bank will keep lowering interest rates.

Sweden’s four-party government bloc has broken with the other parties in a parliamentary committee on public service broadcasting, adding what the opposition complains are “radically changed” proposals. How shocking are they?

Many people move to Sweden because of their partner’s career. Perhaps you’re one of these so-called “trailing spouses”. I’ve been asking readers in this situation how they’re settling in, and will have an article for you next week. There’s still time to answer our survey to share your experience.

Thanks for reading.

Have a good weekend,

Emma

Inside Sweden is our weekly newsletter for members which gives you news, analysis and, sometimes, takes you behind the scenes at The Local. It’s published each Saturday and with Membership+ you can also receive it directly to your inbox.

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